Savings Sites

The internet is one of the biggest resources when trying to save money with coupons and sales. Here are some sites I enjoy:

Think Coupons -- This is a listing of all the online or printable coupons out at the time.
Save.ca, Brandsaver (Proctor and Gamble), Gocoupons, Websaver --Your selected coupons are sent to you in the mail.

Smartcanucks -- Huge community with daily blog postings on good deals, savings, and coupons. This is a site to check daily! Also, there are “coupon trains” you can join to come across a variety of new coupons from other areas. Some links for that site: Current Printable Coupons, Freebies and Samples

I get all my coupons online, in the mail, in the flyers, and through trades.

Saving Money---Intermission!

Let's take a break from saving money to focus on a cool website to help you earn some FREE money!

Swagbucks! Seriously, sign up for this site right away! I have made $85 in Amazon gift cards through this site. It is a websearch and toolbar that gives you points for searching online. I earn about 25-35 points a day, and 450 points is a $5 Amazon gift card. I have made it my home page and have installed the toolbar, and when I want to go to a website I just do a search for it rather than type in the url. There are a ton of prize selections on the site and you also get points for any referrals (1 point for each of theirs up to 1000). You can also earn points by watching videos, doing polls, or completing offers; but I don't have time to sit and do all of that and the search toolbar works good enough for me.

Click on the banner below to start now!

Saving Money Part 1

Several people have been asking me for shopping and saving tips, so here they are!

Part 1:

Shop the sales and stock up! For instance, Campbell’s condensed soup often comes on sale for .44 or .59 a can; the regular price is .99. Stock up on sale rather than paying regular price when you run out. Keep a stock of items you will use and try to pay attention to the expiration dates. There are a lot of things that you can freeze as well. I never buy cheese regular price, but will buy 6-8 bricks on sale and freeze until we need them. This will last us until the next time it is on sale.  Toilet paper is another good thing to stock up on. It is on sale quite often, but is very expensive regular price. Some things that I do not buy if they are not on sale: shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, TP, detergent, pasta, cereal, hamburger, soup, bread, pop, cake mizes, icing, and spaghetti sauce.

Use your coupons on sale items. This is where you can get the biggest bang for your buck! I often get things for free or almost free when using my coupons on sale items. Going back to the Campbell’s soup illustration, there is a coupon floating around right now for $1 off when you buy 3 cans. If I use this when the soup is on sale for .44 (like it is this week!), I will pay only .32 for 3 cans. If I use it when the soup is regular price, I would pay 1.97 for 3 cans.

Love On Assignment Review

This book took me a long time to finish, but I'm finally through Love on Assignment by Cara Lynn James. Having a new baby does not help my reading! I was a bit apprehensive when starting this book, as I'm not a big fan of "Christian romance" books and usually find them a bit cheesy, but this one drew me in right away. The story follows Charolette as she goes undercover as a governess to find anything incriminating on the writer of the local column promoting Christian living and encouraging good work environments. She is hoping this job will land her the next reporter position in her agency as this is set in the 1900s, there are not many women on the job. It was cute to watch her and the writer fall in love and see the way everything ends up panning out in the end. Charolette must re-evaluate everything in her life and chose which road to take--the moral high ground, or the potential reporting job. Overall, a pleasant book and one I'll be happy to pass on to someone else!

Online book description: "During the summer of 1900 Charlotte Hale, a native Newporter and secretary for the Rhode Island Reporter, accepts an undercover assignment as temporary governess to Daniel Wilmont's children in order to secretly gather evidence against him. As he helps her rediscover God, Charlotte learns that Daniel is an honorable man. They unexpectedly fall in love despite their different backgrounds and social positions. Charlotte soon realizes she must defend Daniel against the forces set against him—a willful student with a romantic crush and the newspaper editor determined to destroy his reputation."

I received this book free from Booksneeze.com in exchange for this review.

Etsy Inspired 113

 This weeks Etsy Inspired contest is a super cool clothing shop! Putu Princess Escapes has tons of really great Asian inspired prints. It was tricky to pick just one to be "inspired" by, but the overall Asian theme of the shirts got me into the groove! I chose this shirt for its variety:

 

Get your Ebates here!

I love when I find new deal websites! There are so many ways to save money online. I do a lot of buying on Ebay and this rebate site gives money back for all of your purchases. Sweet deal!

Get your Ebates here!

Elimination Communication

Our two month old poops in the potty! I knew before she was born that we were going to try Elimination Communication, also know as "Diaper Free Baby," but I didn't know how wonderful and easy it was going to be! A hardly ever goes in her diapers and will whine to go on the potty when she needs to. We haven't gotten many pees yet, but she only goes poop in a diaper about once a week. Usually that is because mom is too tired to get out of bed though!

If you have a little one I highly recommend trying this out! It only makes sense that babies don't want to sit in their own waste and will use another method if they can!